Field of the Invention
The invention relates to methods, equipment and systems used to reconfigure or repurpose aircraft and, more particularly, to methods, equipment and systems used to quickly reconfigure or repurpose an aircraft without an extended out of service period.
Description of the Related Art
Reconfiguration of commercial or military aircraft is challenging, particularly when installation of new equipment, capabilities, or changes in mission is required. Military aircraft may need to be reconfigured when the needs of intelligence, surveillance, or command and control missions change. Civilian aircraft may require reconfiguration to account for changing passenger demographics, fare classifications, or seating arrangements.
Current military configurations involve bolted-down racks of equipment, secured workstations, dedicated wiring bundles, etc. Making changes to these often require substantial levels of effort, including designing new racks, rewiring systems, upgrading cooling, cutting new holes in aircraft, and reshuffling equipment in order to maintain weight and balance.
Military aircraft reconfiguration has other impacts as well. When new capabilities are needed, many times they are developed in systems labs, then the aircraft must be taken out of service, the upgrades installed, and then substantial testing must take place.
Rapid changeover of mission systems has been a goal for years, especially concepts for rolling mission systems on or off aircraft, but reality has been harder to achieve, as most wiring, cooling, etc has not been set up to accommodate these rapid changes.
Attempts have been made to provide rapid changeover capabilities using cargo containers and/or standard air cargo pallets. These were generally wired inside, but didn't offer any network or power distribution advantages and have generally not been successful due to the weight penalty imposed by using these types of cargo-rated systems.
Current civilian configurations involve bolted down seats, fixed overhead lighting, EC, and emergency equipment, dedicated wiring bundles to connect to the overhead and seat audio/visual systems and EC systems; etc. Making changes to these often require substantial levels of effort, i.e., rewiring systems, upgrading cooling, moving lighting, EC and emergency equipment.
Civilian aircraft reconfiguration has other impacts as well. When a new seat arrangement or audio/video upgrades are needed, the aircraft must be taken out of service for an extended time, the upgrades installed, and then substantial testing must take place. This time period represents lost revenue for the airline.
Rapid reconfiguration of civilian aircraft has been considered impractical for years. Consequently, no real effort has been made to develop modular systems for civilian aircraft.
Accordingly, there is a need for a generic pallet; floor panel system, or method that provides at least network connections on the pallet and can be used for to reconfigure aircraft.